Support Teach For Bulgaria Teachers

Dear supporters,

Happy New Year! May 2023 bring you happiness, peace, and prosperity!

With the first term of the 2022/2023 school year coming to an end, Teach for Bulgaria teachers are working hard to make learning an enjoyable experience for children from underprivileged communities. One such teacher - Irina Stancheva from the 2021-2023 cohort - has found a new way to engage her students.

Irina is an English language teacher in the 106th school in “Hristo Botev” neighborhood in Sofia where she faces a series of challenges right off the bat - a majority of the students are missing baseline Bulgarian language skills, learning habits, social skills and reading comprehension. Furthermore, the lack of parental support is compounding the natural resistance students have for attending school. Nevertheless, Irina is determined to get through to the children and make learning fun for them.

Through a series of experiments in the classroom, Irina finds an approach to teaching that is engaging the students through educational games, painting, and other activities. She is even successful in encouraging a record number of parents to attend the parent-teacher conferences by inviting successful members of the community to attend and share their thoughts on how education helped their journey.

Irina also started a peer mentorship programme in the school by inviting students from some of Sofia’s most elite schools to be role models for her students. Through that initiative, the students from 106th school have been able to broaden their horizons and learn about career fields that they didn’t know existed before the programme started. Irina believes that learning about possible career opportunities would encourage her students to make more sustained and thorough efforts in their learning.

With your continued help teachers like Irina have been able to make real changes to the lives of students from the most underprivileged communities in Bulgaria. Thank you for your support!

With gratitude, 

The Teach For Bulgaria team

Dear supporters,

Summer is the time for holidays and rest for all teachers. Before indulging in a well-deserved rest after a challenging school year, the participants in A New Way to Teaching program traditionally use the summer months to provide additional support to students and build on their experience and knowledge in various fields by implementing their own summer projects and internships. Among the summer plans of all 76 teachers from the class of 2021-2023 this year, there is a wide variety of summer academies, activities to develop students’ skills, upgrade their own experience as trainers, coordinators and volunteers in various organizations and institutions.

Today we bring you to Lyulin neighborhood in Sofia to present to you one of these inspiring summer projects. The teachers in Bratya Miladinovi High School 97, Sofia organized  Summer academy for their students. Behind the initiatives are A New Way to Teaching participants Mihaela Bozhankova, Mihaela Dimitrova, Ivelina Borisova, Vassiliki Drakontidis.

School 97 has been carrying out its own summer academy for several years, organized by current participants in the program and alumni of Teach for Bulgaria who continue to teach at the school.

The academy this year was held at the end of June and covered 45 students from 1st to 3rd grade. For two weeks in June, students broaden their worldview through a variety of themed days, a combination of individual activities and group work. The activities during the academy were varied: creativity workshops, including drawing, recreating cave paintings, bean mosaics; getting to know plants; folklore activities, such as Bulgarian costumes and needlework, dance classes; dramatization of fairy tales, reading comprehension, health education, a culinary day with food preparation and many others.

Activities each day included student feedback and morning physical warm-up. In addition to lots of fun, the academy also engaged the students in a charitable cause – the children crafted items during the academy and participated in a Charity Bazaar for the benefit of an upper-year classmate.

The greatest victory since the organization of the academy reported by the teachers is “The positive attitude of the students, who came not out of obligation, but with eagerness. The fact that the students made at least one new friend, learned at least one new thing, and realized that they were good at at least one activity they hadn't suspected before. The fact that they completely overcame the age gap in their communication and treated each other as equals.”

Thank you for supporting our cause. Your help allows us to continue training motivated professionals to become inspiring teachers!

With gratitude, 

Teach For Bulgaria team 

Links:

• Facebook page of School 97 with photos from the activities